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Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six 3: Black Arrow Preview for Xbox
Posted on Thursday, April 29, 2004 @ 07:23:00 pm E.S.TWith as much speed and vigor as Team Rainbow's own Ding Chavez and Co. have when combating terrorists, UbiSoft stalks counter terrorism once again in Rainbow Six 3: Black Arrow, set to launch exclusively for the Xbox this summer. Although more of an expansion pack rather than a full-on sequel, Black Arrow promises many new and interesting features to expand upon the original title, including new missions, weapons, and multiplayer game types (including split-screen co-operative play) brought over from the two PC expansion packs, Raven Shield and Athena Sword.
For those of you who missed out on the original RS3, here's the story: You play as Domingo "Ding" Chavez, the head of a counter-terrorist squad known as Team RAINBOW. You've been sent to combat terrorist organizations that are attempting to commit acts of rage inspired by oil embargos against both the United States and Venezuela, the U.S.'s oil supplier. In RS3: Black Arrow, however, Team Rainbow must now go back out into the close-combat battlefields of war-torn cities and attempt to put a stop to what may become an international nuclear war.
Just where will this war on terror take you, you ask? The updated single-player campaign, which can be played split-screen with a friend, takes you to locales ranging from the Medeterranian to Eastern European countries (specific locales have yet to be named). Your arsenal of weapons will also be expanded for these missions, with a new assortment of machine guns, sub-machine guns, and the one thing that many players have asked for, more handguns to help increase the difficulty of the game in a unique manner, rather than just modifying the intelligence of the AI.
The gameplay in Black Arrow is just as it was in the original Rainbow Six 3: simplistic first-person counter-terror action in its purest form. Whether playing the Campaign missions solo or with a friend (online or off), you’ll experience the same high-intensity action that was in the first. Same with the online play: whether playing 4-on-4 Team Survival, running through a Terrorist Hunt with 3 good friends, or in a 16-player Sharpshooter deathmatch, you'll have the same amazing experience that many did with the first.
And if there was one thing that made the first RS3 a success on the Xbox, it would have to be the online play. With thousands of players in servers at any given moment, it's been the number one played Xbox Live game for over 3 months now, and is the third most popular game played online since the formation of the Live service. UbiSoft made a special note of this, and made sure to cater to the demands of the many hungry players salivating for more top-notch, tactical combat. Although UbiSoft has been able to keep some gamers happy and quietly content with a grand total of five downloadable maps, many players have complained about the dire need for more maps and game types to have accessible. With all of the additional content available on the PC's two expansion packs, console gamers felt somewhat cheated out of the bonuses that PC gamers received.
Fortunately, UbiSoft is promising those gamers a whole abundance of new features, game types, maps and weaponry to keep them happy for quite a long time. Among these new features is Xbox Live 3.0; UbiSoft reports that Rainbow Six 3: BA will be the first game to take advantage of these new online capabilities. Among these included in the recent download package are the ability to send 15 second voice messages to friends while in game, so they can hear what you have to say as you invite them over to another game. Not only that, but your friends online with MSN Messenger will be able to see that you're playing Black Arrow, hop on their Xboxes and join in on the mayhem.
Whether you were a fan of the original Rainbow Six 3, or you are a newcomer to the series, there's no denying the power that Black Arrow will have on the lives of many gamers and digital terrorists alike. From new missions, weapons, and multiplayer game types to the inclusion of the new features of Xbox Live Version 3.0, it's sure to be terror this summer when RS3: Black Arrow hits stores.
Preview By: Matt Hack - 1243 Reads
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